


Strike Out

by beranica



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-26
Updated: 2017-04-26
Packaged: 2018-10-24 04:47:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10734417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beranica/pseuds/beranica
Summary: It seems like anyone in this town with money and a stuck up daughter could get themselves a cheerleading team.





	Strike Out

Her meeting with principal Weatherbee goes like this:

Riverdale High’s internationally ranked softball team is desperately in need of new uniforms. It’s easy to spot the holes the ancient uniforms sport even as a viewer from the stands. And after Betty and her team made it all the way to the end last year, only one win shy of the championship title - one she intends to take home this year - Betty figured that this is their year. There’s no way Principal Weatherby could say no to her after all the attention they generated for their unknown school.

Except he does.

Instead of the new uniforms they desperately need Weatherbee greenlights a new cheerleading team entirely separate from the one they already have specifically for their award winning team.

“What about our uniforms?” she asks irritably.

But of course new uniforms don’t attract publicity like a new cheer team does and Riverdale is nothing if not a bunch of wannabe somebodies. “Besides, Betty,” he tells her, “everyone loves a good underdog story.”

God, she hates this town.  
  
To make things worse this new off-brand vixen team is run by none other than Riverdale's newest fascination, Veronica Lodge. Betty watches them show up for practice in their stupid gold cheer uniforms - _new_ _cheer uniforms_ \- and she can't help but blame Veronica for the whole thing.

Betty’s sure Veronica could have bought this entire town three times over and yet here she is stealing her one chance of being a respected softball team away.  
  
(It dawns on her a day later that Veronica and her wealthy father are probably the reason the new cheer team even exists, and at that, her blood practically boils.)

It makes her feel a little better that Veronica’s squad is essentially just Cheryl Blossom’s rejects. It doesn’t seem to phase Veronica, though. Veronica works her girls just as hard like she doesn’t know that they’ll never be the River Vixens. But betty overhears Veronica quip a backhanded compliment to Cheryl and figures that she probably doesn’t care.

"Hi Betty," Veronica chirps at her after practice one day. Betty doesn't miss the way Veronica's eyes linger over a hole in her uniform. “A little birdy told me that your team is in need of new uniforms.”  
  
Her smile is so wide and her voice is so sweet. Betty’s heard about her reputation back in New York and she can’t help but feel like there’s a catch to her friendliness.  

“Veronica,” Betty acknowledges. “What’s our uniform status have to do with you?”She tries not to sound bitter but she fails.

Veronica’s face falls and Betty being the cause of it immediately makes her feel guilty. Weatherbee and his stupid refusal to budget in what they needed wasn’t really Veronica’s fault - even if Betty wanted it to be.

“We’re your cheerleaders, aren’t we?”

Betty shrugs. She really hasn’t accepted that as fact yet.

“Anyways, as you know the assembly is this Friday. And it’s tradition for the athletes to give the cheerleaders roses to promote ticket sales for the sweetheart dance.”

Betty’s in student council so she knows this. Veronica’s barely been in this town a month so she isn’t sure how she does.  
  
"Actually, the guys give the Vixens roses," Betty clarifies. "And I am not a guy and you are not a Vixen."  
  
Veronica's face falters again but Betty blinks and her smile is back. "Now Betty," Veronica starts, "you didn't really strike me as the type to conform to gender norms. Are the whispers I heard untrue?"  
  
Betty rolls her eyes. "What? That I'm gay?"  
  
Veronica's eyes practically sparkle. "Well I was going to say that you single handedly took down the varsity football team last year but that's equally interesting information."  
  
Betty just feels dumb now. "Oh."  
  
"So you'll be giving me a rose, then?"  
  
Something about Veronica makes her think she doesn't have a choice. "I'll see you Friday."

* * *

  
  
Weatherbee drops a box full of new uniforms on her desk when she checks in for applied office aid the next morning at school. Attached is a distinctly perfume smelling note.  
  
_Don't forget the flower Friday! My favorite are yellow._  
  
_xoxo, V_

 

* * *

  
  
The kiss Veronica presses to her cheek in front of the entire student body _really_ makes Betty reconsider the whole loathing Veronica Lodge thing.

 

* * *

 

The friendship she forms with Veronica is a welcomed change to the norm of Riverdale. For starters, Veronica’s the first girl she really can consider her friend in this miserable, homophobic town.  
  
Betty and Veronica have been lining up their practices so that they let out at the same time. Betty and Veronica's girls mingle as they shrug out of their sweaty practice clothes and into something more comfortable. Veronica is oddly quiet, though. And for the third practice in a row (she's been keeping count) she's the last girl out of the locker room besides Betty.  
  
"V? Anything up?"  
  
Veronica puts on her convincing Lodge smile and shakes her head. "No, nothing," she says, but Betty doesn't really believe her.  
  
"Do you want to go back to mine maybe? And not talk about whatever nothing is code for?"  
  
The way Veronica's shoulders sag makes her feel like she said the right thing for once.  
  
"I'd like that, actually," she nods. "Thanks.

 

* * *

  
  
It doesn't take much probing to get Veronica to spill about a whole slew of legal issues her parents are going through.  
  
To be honest, it makes Betty's head spin a bit and reminds her of Jughead and their murder investigation days. But Veronica looks more like herself by the end of it and Betty's infinitely relieved because of that. She hasn’t quite gotten this whole having girl friends thing down. Archie and Kevin rarely needed comforting and when they did it wasn’t anything Pop’s couldn’t fix.  
  
"Alright, girl," Veronica says eventually, "I shared a secret with you so now you have to share something with me. That’s how this works."  
  
Betty nearly argues but she realizes Veronica’s trying to change the topic, a distraction, and stops herself.  
  
"What do you want to know?"  
  
Veronica flips over on Betty's bed and turns toward her.  "Everything," she says, and Betty tosses a pillow at her.

"Quit being dumb."  
  
"I'm serious! If we're going to be best gals then I need to know everything. Deepest darkest fears? Silly crushes? Best kisses? You know, girl stuff."  
  
Betty wouldn't know. Her only friends are Archie and Kevin.  
  
Betty draws a pillow to her chest and pauses in thought. "Well, I think everyone in this town is scared of Sweetwater River. And god, I had a crush on Archie back in middle school but I got over that, thankfully. And best kiss..." Betty pauses in thought. "I really haven't had any that were particularly memorable."  
  
Veronica's eyes practically bulge out of her head. "Is everyone in this town that awful?"  
  
"Maybe?" Betty shrugs. "I really wouldn't know. I've kissed a handful of boys and none of them were life changing or anything."  
  
"Seriously? No girls? No steamy Sweetwater hookups?"  
  
Betty thinks to her last relationship and their failed sort-of-relationship. Then, bitterly, of her exe's strict no kissing rule. "Nope. Never kissed a girl. This is Riverdale, not New York. And, Sweetwater is more Kevin's thing, really."  
  
Veronica lets out an exasperated sigh. "This small town lets me down more every day."  
  
Betty nods. "You and me both. I feel like I'm not going to know what to do when I finally _do_ get to kiss someone."  
  
Veronica shrugs. "It's not hard."  
  
"I wouldn't know." she repeats.  
  
Veronica sits up, a slight smirk toying at her lips.  
  
"Give me your hand."  
  
"What are you doing?"  
  
"Showing you."  
  
"With my hand?" She's confused - she usually is with Veronica - but she hands over her hand anyways.  
  
"Mhmm," Veronica hums. "Stick out your pinky."  
  
Again, she does as she's told.  
  
Veronica scoots closer and brings Betty's hand near her mouth. And then - finally - it dawns on her what Veronica's about to do. Betty's mouth falls open. Maybe this is why she's only friends with Archie and Kevin. _Girl_ _stuff_ is about to make her heart collapse.  
  
Then, and it's far hotter than Betty thinks shoving a pinky in her friends mouth should be, Veronica opens her mouth and wraps her lips around Betty.  
  
And Betty - Betty feels tongue.    
  
Honest to god she thinks her heart stops beating.  
  
Truthfully, she doesn't really know what the point of this is. She doesn’t think she’d be able to concentrate on it even if she did. Veronica's mouth is intoxicatingly warm and her tongue is stupidly soft as she demonstrates (a demonstration? Is that what this is?) how to properly kiss somebody.  
  
Betty nearly squirms at how uncomfortable her jeans have suddenly become.  
  
Veronica pulls away and there's a string of saliva connecting Betty to Veronica's mouth. Veronica wipes it away and flashes Betty a smile like this something she did all the time.  
  
"See? Not so hard."  
  
Betty's mouth opens and closes.  
  
"I think - " Betty clears her throat, her voice embarrassingly rough. "I think I need you to show me again."  
  
And that's how it starts, really. She goes from loathing Veronica Lodge to making out with her in just under two months.  
  
She wants to be upset with herself but she really can't when Veronica's mouth pushes every kiss she ever shared with Jughead to the deepest, darkest parts of her mind.

 

* * *

  
  
Their first game with the not-Vixen’s goes about as horribly as Betty thinks it could have. One moment she was watching her girls execute the plays they've been working on for weeks and the next her eye catches familiar glossy black hair.  
  
Veronica smirks at her.  
  
Betty tries not to stare - she can practically hear Kevin in her head, _you useless lesbian_ \- but Veronica's uniform is very short and her hips swings just enough for her skirt to ride up and for Betty to catch a glimpse of the black spanks she wears underneath. And Betty's softball uniform is sticking to her from the sweat - the same uniform that Veronica specially ordered to read Cooper across the back and -  
  
She hears her teammates warning too late. She briefly registers the smack of the softball against the bat, in slow motion watches it whirl toward her, and then - Veronica isn't cheering anymore - there's an entirely different smack as the softball collides with her skull. And -  
  
Fuck.  
  
Black blurs the outer of her vision for a moment and suddenly she's laying in the dirt. Her coach is calling a timeout. People are hovering over her. And still -  
  
Fuck.  
  
She lifts her hand to her head and rubs across the growing knot in her forehead. People are helping her to her feet. Kevin's there, her was in the stands, looking at her with that same look she envisioned moments before.  
  
"Shut up," she bites out (he didn't say anything), but it sounds mostly like a moan of pain.  
  
"Betty! Are you okay?" And there's Veronica, wide eyed, hand closing around her wrist, swiping soothingly across her skin. And really -  
  
Fuck.  
  
"Lodge!" Her coach barks. "Take her to the nurse."  
  
Veronica agrees, taking Betty's hand in hers before Betty can say anything otherwise.  
  
Neither of them acknowledge Betty getting nailed in the head with a softball because she was too busy staring at Veronica's ass.

 

* * *

  
  
The familiar clacking of heels is her only warning. Well that and the shadow that she spots looming next to the car, distinctly Veronica shaped.  
  
"Of course you fix cars."  
  
Betty pushes out from underneath the one she's working on right now and peers up at Veronica curiously. "What were you expecting?"  
  
"I don't know. Maybe rescuing kittens from a tree? Journaling in a diary?"  
  
Betty flushes. Her journal is sitting on her desk right now and she helped her neighbor get his cat down from his treehouse a month ago.  
  
"B, I'm kidding." Veronica rolls her eyes. "Now come on, get ready. Or did you forget?"  
  
Before she can think, "Forget what?" slips out of her mouth.  
  
"Our sleepover at my place. You're late."  
  
Betty’d lost track of time. "Sorry. It's the concussion."  
  
Veronica rolls her eyes again. "It's been two weeks. When are you going to stop using that as an excuse for everything?"

Betty shrugs.  
  
Betty doesn't know when making out with Veronica became spending the night in her bed, cuddling with Veronica but she can't say she's complaining.

* * *

  
  
It's a few months into their secret make out sessions that Kevin finally starts catching on. Honestly, the amount of times he's nearly caught them in the locker room is kind of ridiculous now. Betty's surprised nothing happened sooner.  
  
"What is _that_ ?"  
  
Before she's even completely aware of what's happening her hand instinctively slaps over the light hickey Veronica left on her neck last night.  
  
"Betty, a hickey?!" he says incredulously. "From who?!"  
  
"Keep your voice down," she hisses back. Her eyes flit to Veronica a few tables away and before she realizes what she's done, Kevin's gaze follows hers and his mouth falls open with shock.  
  
"Veronica Lodge?"  
  
Her cheeks flame but there’s no use in lying. "Yes."  
  
"Were you ever going to tell me?"  
  
Guiltily, "Yes."  
  
"Do you like her?"  
  
It shocks how easy it is to say yes a third time.

 

* * *

  
  
Practice ends and like usual, Veronica and Betty are the last two in the locker room.  
  
"What's that thing you always say about fate?" Betty muses. Her smirk is fleeting, though, because moments later Veronica's tangling her hand into Betty's hair and pulling her down into a kiss. There's a lilt of aggression to it that makes Betty want to pull back, ask what's wrong, but Veronica bites her lip and hums at the sound Betty makes in response and the thoughts buried as quickly as it came.  
  
Betty doesn't think about it again until there's sudden wetness on her face that sends her reeling back.  
  
"Woah, V -" because Veronica's crying and Betty doesn't know why Veronica's crying - "what's wrong?"  
  
Veronica huffs out irritatedly and tries to press their lips together again but Betty grabs her arms and grounds her in place. "Ronnie," she murmurs, "you can tell me."  
  
It makes Betty's ache at how quickly Veronica crumbles. "My dad," she says, whimpering. She moves forward and buries her face in the crook of Betty's neck. "He threatened me and my mom."  
  
Betty’s arms wrap around her waist. "Oh, Ronnie,” she soothes, rubbing up and down her back. “I’m here for you.”

It’s Veronica answering back, “I know,” that makes Betty wonder why their relationship is confined to a locker room anyway.

 

* * *

 

Their international game goes like this:

Veronica and Betty’s respective teams piling into a bus and driving off to some other nameless town. The whole way there Veronica cuddles up against her, sharing snacks and one of her ear buds as they take turns showing each other their favorite music to calm Betty’s pregame nerves.

When they actually get there, they unwillingly part as Veronica gets ready to cheer and Betty gets ready for the game. But not before Veronica presses a good luck kiss to her cheek. After that, Betty listens to the last song Veronica showed her on loop to get in the right headspace.

The game itself is probably the hardest Betty’s played her entire life. The score is practically tied the whole game but her nerves are oddly calmed while it’s happening. In the end it’s Betty standing proudly in her uniform with her bat gripped tightly in her hand. The softball comes whirling toward her and this time when she catches a glimpse of Veronica’s black hair in her peripheral, it’s her bat that makes contact with the ball and not her head.

The ball soars and Betty doesn’t think as she starts to run. First… Second… (Somewhere, she hears the announcer yell _homerun_!) Third… Home...

Betty’s only halfway aware that the announcer yells  _Riverdale High Win!_ as she slides into home. She’s even less aware of Veronica darting onto the field, barreling toward her before even her teammates can reach her. Veronica practically launches herself onto the ground with Betty, peppering kisses along her face as Betty manages to wrap her up in her arms. “You did it!” Veronica shrieks.

And it’s just that easy. Months of kissing Veronica only in private suddenly don’t matter when she’s achieved the one thing she set out to do this year. She smashes her lips against Veronica’s before she starts smiling so wide that she can’t even call the giggling fit they fall into a kiss anymore.

Around them, her teammates hoot and holler and Betty knows they’ll have to talk about this later but for the time being, Betty really doesn’t care. All that matters is the warmth she feels and Veronica being apart of it. 

**Author's Note:**

> beranica.tumblr.com


End file.
